Nigerian War on Terror: Disturbing Tales of Conspiracy, Sabotage
October 15, 2014
By Kingsley Omonobi & Charles Kumolu
Nigerian Vanguard
NIGERIA and South Africa have in the past three weeks been embroiled in a serious diplomatic and economic dispute over the twin arms purchase deals that would have seen South African Concerns playing the role of third party in the arms purchase transactions.
Also curiously, the United States of America, USA and its European allies have not responded positively to the sincere requests made by the Nigerian military for arms acquisition from their countries, especially as it concerns weaponry needed to prosecute the war on terrorism and other contemporary challenges threatening the country.Dasuki-Sambo-jonathan
The feeling in government quarters is that the US, UK, Canada, France, etc, have always openly pledged and promised to support Nigeria, but do little in the area of supporting the country with the required modern weaponry to deal with the terrorism menace.
A recent case in point that has been cited was the pledge made by these world powers to assist Nigeria following the public outcry and world outrage that greeted the abduction of about 276 girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok. Not satisfied with the way they felt Nigeria was handling the rescue of the girls several of these countries pledged their readiness to come to Nigeria with the latest technology in satellite tracking, imagery, aircraft manouvering and drone technology, to help rescue the girls.
Experts and latest technology
But months after the arrival of these ‘experts’ and ‘latest technology,’ which was celebrated to high heavens, nothing has been achieved other than the claim by these foreign experts that they know where the girls are.
Indeed Vanguard Features VF discovered that after being granted free access to Nigeria’s airspace and military facilities based on request, the US and its allies have turned around to claim that they were not here to rescue the girls but only to provide Nigeria with information for that purpose.
”That means that while they are in Nigeria, using their satellite equipment and drones to scan the country, if they see Boko Haram terrorists moving in a convoy to attack a community, for instance, or they are already in a location killing and maiming innocent citizens in communities, they (foreigners) will do nothing about it. They will only observe,” a senior military officer said.
Sabotage alleged: Apart from this, VF gathered that the military knows that there is sabotage from within its ranks. Some military personnel allegedly connive with the terrorists, leaking operational roadmaps and strategies to the insurgents which results into soldiers being ambushed and killed by the terrorists. It was further alleged that these saboteurs willfully donate arms and ammunition, including armoured personnel carriers, APC to them (Boko Haram).
The Military authorities have therefore decided to take the bull by the horn by arresting and arraigning several of its personnel in military courts for alleged conspiracy, desertions and willful damage to operational equipment, among others.
The most recent and hard to take occurrence which made an officer to wonder whether a group of Nigerians, particularly top politicians are out to ensure that the fight against terrorism fails, is the arms cash debacle between Nigeria and South Africa.
Firstly, it was the seizure of $9. 3million cash ferried to South Africa by the private aircraft of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, which security sources said was a kind of covert operation that many countries do all the time because of the need to prevent information about the nature of arms getting to the knowledge of the enemy.
Although the Federal Government immediately denied allegations that the cash was a product of corrupt practices, it (Government) maintained that the money was actually meant for arms purchase to help fight terrorism through a third party arrangement.
According to Mr. Karounwi Adekunle, the spokesperson for the office of the NSA: “A business transaction actually took place between a legitimate company in Nigeria and another legitimate company in South Africa through the bank. In the course of events, the South African company could not perform and decided to refund the money.
What is illegitimate in this transaction done through the bank?” Despite this explanation, the South African authorities who benefitted the most from Nigeria during the period of apartheid, went ahead to seize the money.
VF learnt that the Federal Government and top officers of security agencies in the country, are worried about the increasing trend by South African authorities to frustrate efforts by Nigeria to acquire weaponry and equipment needed to contain the deadly Boko Haram terrorism in North Eastern Nigeria.
As if this unbelievable occurrence was not enough, another arms transaction involving the sum of $5. 7million which was legitimately conducted through the banks and a bona-fide company in South Africa, months back, was again seized simply because the South African authorities delayed in renewing the license of the company which is not the fault of Nigeria.
South African media exonerate FG of money laundering
Although several media organisations inside South Africa have investigated the arms deals independently and discovered that both transactions were legitimately done and that the cash were not proceeds of money laundering to be kept in foreign banks, yet the South African government has refused to budge.
One of such investigations done by ‘Rapport and City Press’ vindicated the Federal Government’s official position that the transactions were legitimate. They confirmed and showed that end user certificates and a ‘shopping’ list accompanied the transactions as well as a note from Nigerian government authenticating the deals”.
Security agencies
The reports cited documents showing that the earlier consignment was approved by the Nigerian government – through the Office of National Security Adviser, NSA, which is officially mandated to issue the end-user certificate for such transactions that involved security agencies in Nigeria.
An entire “shopping list” was also said to have been supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.
A top security source in the intelligence service also disclosed that “in issuing end-user certificate, the Office of the National Security Adviser ensures that it carries all relevant agencies and stakeholders along. Therefore, such a responsibility is not a unilateral development.
”For security reasons, the chains leading to the issuance of end-user certificate cannot be put in the public domain,” the source said. “The recent interest in arms purchase was informed by the challenges of insurgency which our nation had been grappling with in the last few years.
“Nigeria is desperate to counter activities of terrorists no matter what it takes even when some of our friends are not being fair to us,” he added.
Top politicians fuelling the impasse
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has expressed worry over the true motive of South Africa and its collaborators in Nigeria who sources have fingered to be top notch politicians. One of these is alleged to be angling to become the nation’s number one citizen.
These same politicians according to investigations, are the ones shouting themselves hoarse that terrorism and insecurity have killed the nation, while the Federal Government is treating the issue with kid gloves. One security source noted that the people behind this plot to scuttle procuring weapons for the military are not difficult to know. He added that investigations have pointed to those who have certain investments and relationship with the powers that be in South Africa.
”They feel that if the military is better equipped and Boko Haram terrorism brought to its knees quickly, the Jonathan administration would have secured a moral and psychological victory on one of the planks they intend to capitalise on as a campaign material in the 2015 elections, hence they are doing everything to frustrate the success of the arms purchase deals,” the source alleged.
“The curious interest in the nation’s arms deal in the past few weeks appears to suggest that some vested interests do not want the nation to win the war against insurgency. Some fifth columnists are certainly at work to achieve a clandestine purpose,” the source further alleged.
Legal way to buy arms -Tsav
A former Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, however, said there are many unanswered questions in the way the arms transaction was handled.
“There are many things involved in this matter. Maybe someone is using that method to launder money. Perhaps, the person wanted to divert the money for his own personal use. Otherwise, if you want to buy arms, the arms dealer must have an account. And the money should be transferred through the dealer’s bank account. And if such must be done it must be according to all known legal procedures of arms purchase,” he said.
Legal procedures of arms purchase
Continuing, Alhaji Tsav asked: “What is the reason behind the purchase of arms? Is it to fight terrorists?
“There are many questions that are unanswered on that issue. And the people advising President Jonathan are not doing him good. His advisers ought to have told him the proper ways of purchasing arms. What stopped them from transferring the money through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN? If they are claiming that some Western countries have refused to sell arms to Nigeria, then they should make the purchase legal. The way things are going on in this country raises a lot of questions. Nigeria has a very strong army that is respected in the continent and beyond. But unfortunately, defeating Boko Haram has become a big challenge. That our troops have not gone to Sambisa forest is also a surprise to all those who respect the Nigerian Army,” he said.
Falana absolves FG of complicity
But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN and well known critic of the Federal Government, Mr. Femi Falana, in an article published in Sahara Reporters, an online publication, absolved the Federal Government of complicity in the transaction. He however blamed the office of the NSA and the companies involved in the transaction for failing to conduct due diligence.
Falana wrote: “It is interesting to note that the NSA has not said that it was the Federal Government that transferred the controversial fund to South Africa. Neither has the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA indicted the Federal Government for the alleged criminality associated with the transaction. In fact, the NPA has not questioned the legal status of both companies.
What is being investigated by the NPA is the legitimacy of the receipt of $5.7 million by Cerberus Risk Solutions of South Africa whose license to deal in arms had expired before it entered into the contract. In actuality, it was the Standard Bank through which the fund was transferred which reported the “suspicious transaction”. And the NPA promptly applied for and obtained an order of the High Court for the seizure of the fund. Both companies-Cerberus Risk Solutions of South Africa and its Nigerian counterpart, Societe D’Equipments Internationale, are yet to challenge the interim order for the confiscation of the fund.
“Therefore, contrary to the mismanagement of information traceable to the office of the NSA, the Federal Government did not place any direct order for the importation of arms from South Africa. The fact that the NSA signed the End User certificate for the arms importation is not a license for the companies involved in the deal to breach the laws of South Africa.
In other words, the Israeli and two Nigerians who were arrested last month for smuggling the sum of $9.3 million and the Nigerian company involved in the transfer of the $5.7 million to South Africa are not public officers. As independent contractors they were awarded contracts for the supply of arms by the Federal Government and paid accordingly. It is indubitably clear that the suspects were negligent for failing to conduct due diligence”.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/war-terror-disturbing-tales-conspiracy-sabotage/#sthash.XCm9gR0D.dpuf
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| Federal Republic of Nigeria currency the Naira. |
By Kingsley Omonobi & Charles Kumolu
Nigerian Vanguard
NIGERIA and South Africa have in the past three weeks been embroiled in a serious diplomatic and economic dispute over the twin arms purchase deals that would have seen South African Concerns playing the role of third party in the arms purchase transactions.
Also curiously, the United States of America, USA and its European allies have not responded positively to the sincere requests made by the Nigerian military for arms acquisition from their countries, especially as it concerns weaponry needed to prosecute the war on terrorism and other contemporary challenges threatening the country.Dasuki-Sambo-jonathan
The feeling in government quarters is that the US, UK, Canada, France, etc, have always openly pledged and promised to support Nigeria, but do little in the area of supporting the country with the required modern weaponry to deal with the terrorism menace.
A recent case in point that has been cited was the pledge made by these world powers to assist Nigeria following the public outcry and world outrage that greeted the abduction of about 276 girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok. Not satisfied with the way they felt Nigeria was handling the rescue of the girls several of these countries pledged their readiness to come to Nigeria with the latest technology in satellite tracking, imagery, aircraft manouvering and drone technology, to help rescue the girls.
Experts and latest technology
But months after the arrival of these ‘experts’ and ‘latest technology,’ which was celebrated to high heavens, nothing has been achieved other than the claim by these foreign experts that they know where the girls are.
Indeed Vanguard Features VF discovered that after being granted free access to Nigeria’s airspace and military facilities based on request, the US and its allies have turned around to claim that they were not here to rescue the girls but only to provide Nigeria with information for that purpose.
”That means that while they are in Nigeria, using their satellite equipment and drones to scan the country, if they see Boko Haram terrorists moving in a convoy to attack a community, for instance, or they are already in a location killing and maiming innocent citizens in communities, they (foreigners) will do nothing about it. They will only observe,” a senior military officer said.
Sabotage alleged: Apart from this, VF gathered that the military knows that there is sabotage from within its ranks. Some military personnel allegedly connive with the terrorists, leaking operational roadmaps and strategies to the insurgents which results into soldiers being ambushed and killed by the terrorists. It was further alleged that these saboteurs willfully donate arms and ammunition, including armoured personnel carriers, APC to them (Boko Haram).
The Military authorities have therefore decided to take the bull by the horn by arresting and arraigning several of its personnel in military courts for alleged conspiracy, desertions and willful damage to operational equipment, among others.
The most recent and hard to take occurrence which made an officer to wonder whether a group of Nigerians, particularly top politicians are out to ensure that the fight against terrorism fails, is the arms cash debacle between Nigeria and South Africa.
Firstly, it was the seizure of $9. 3million cash ferried to South Africa by the private aircraft of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, which security sources said was a kind of covert operation that many countries do all the time because of the need to prevent information about the nature of arms getting to the knowledge of the enemy.
Although the Federal Government immediately denied allegations that the cash was a product of corrupt practices, it (Government) maintained that the money was actually meant for arms purchase to help fight terrorism through a third party arrangement.
According to Mr. Karounwi Adekunle, the spokesperson for the office of the NSA: “A business transaction actually took place between a legitimate company in Nigeria and another legitimate company in South Africa through the bank. In the course of events, the South African company could not perform and decided to refund the money.
What is illegitimate in this transaction done through the bank?” Despite this explanation, the South African authorities who benefitted the most from Nigeria during the period of apartheid, went ahead to seize the money.
VF learnt that the Federal Government and top officers of security agencies in the country, are worried about the increasing trend by South African authorities to frustrate efforts by Nigeria to acquire weaponry and equipment needed to contain the deadly Boko Haram terrorism in North Eastern Nigeria.
As if this unbelievable occurrence was not enough, another arms transaction involving the sum of $5. 7million which was legitimately conducted through the banks and a bona-fide company in South Africa, months back, was again seized simply because the South African authorities delayed in renewing the license of the company which is not the fault of Nigeria.
South African media exonerate FG of money laundering
Although several media organisations inside South Africa have investigated the arms deals independently and discovered that both transactions were legitimately done and that the cash were not proceeds of money laundering to be kept in foreign banks, yet the South African government has refused to budge.
One of such investigations done by ‘Rapport and City Press’ vindicated the Federal Government’s official position that the transactions were legitimate. They confirmed and showed that end user certificates and a ‘shopping’ list accompanied the transactions as well as a note from Nigerian government authenticating the deals”.
Security agencies
The reports cited documents showing that the earlier consignment was approved by the Nigerian government – through the Office of National Security Adviser, NSA, which is officially mandated to issue the end-user certificate for such transactions that involved security agencies in Nigeria.
An entire “shopping list” was also said to have been supplied with the certificate, which included everything from helicopters to unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition.
A top security source in the intelligence service also disclosed that “in issuing end-user certificate, the Office of the National Security Adviser ensures that it carries all relevant agencies and stakeholders along. Therefore, such a responsibility is not a unilateral development.
”For security reasons, the chains leading to the issuance of end-user certificate cannot be put in the public domain,” the source said. “The recent interest in arms purchase was informed by the challenges of insurgency which our nation had been grappling with in the last few years.
“Nigeria is desperate to counter activities of terrorists no matter what it takes even when some of our friends are not being fair to us,” he added.
Top politicians fuelling the impasse
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has expressed worry over the true motive of South Africa and its collaborators in Nigeria who sources have fingered to be top notch politicians. One of these is alleged to be angling to become the nation’s number one citizen.
These same politicians according to investigations, are the ones shouting themselves hoarse that terrorism and insecurity have killed the nation, while the Federal Government is treating the issue with kid gloves. One security source noted that the people behind this plot to scuttle procuring weapons for the military are not difficult to know. He added that investigations have pointed to those who have certain investments and relationship with the powers that be in South Africa.
”They feel that if the military is better equipped and Boko Haram terrorism brought to its knees quickly, the Jonathan administration would have secured a moral and psychological victory on one of the planks they intend to capitalise on as a campaign material in the 2015 elections, hence they are doing everything to frustrate the success of the arms purchase deals,” the source alleged.
“The curious interest in the nation’s arms deal in the past few weeks appears to suggest that some vested interests do not want the nation to win the war against insurgency. Some fifth columnists are certainly at work to achieve a clandestine purpose,” the source further alleged.
Legal way to buy arms -Tsav
A former Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, however, said there are many unanswered questions in the way the arms transaction was handled.
“There are many things involved in this matter. Maybe someone is using that method to launder money. Perhaps, the person wanted to divert the money for his own personal use. Otherwise, if you want to buy arms, the arms dealer must have an account. And the money should be transferred through the dealer’s bank account. And if such must be done it must be according to all known legal procedures of arms purchase,” he said.
Legal procedures of arms purchase
Continuing, Alhaji Tsav asked: “What is the reason behind the purchase of arms? Is it to fight terrorists?
“There are many questions that are unanswered on that issue. And the people advising President Jonathan are not doing him good. His advisers ought to have told him the proper ways of purchasing arms. What stopped them from transferring the money through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN? If they are claiming that some Western countries have refused to sell arms to Nigeria, then they should make the purchase legal. The way things are going on in this country raises a lot of questions. Nigeria has a very strong army that is respected in the continent and beyond. But unfortunately, defeating Boko Haram has become a big challenge. That our troops have not gone to Sambisa forest is also a surprise to all those who respect the Nigerian Army,” he said.
Falana absolves FG of complicity
But a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN and well known critic of the Federal Government, Mr. Femi Falana, in an article published in Sahara Reporters, an online publication, absolved the Federal Government of complicity in the transaction. He however blamed the office of the NSA and the companies involved in the transaction for failing to conduct due diligence.
Falana wrote: “It is interesting to note that the NSA has not said that it was the Federal Government that transferred the controversial fund to South Africa. Neither has the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA indicted the Federal Government for the alleged criminality associated with the transaction. In fact, the NPA has not questioned the legal status of both companies.
What is being investigated by the NPA is the legitimacy of the receipt of $5.7 million by Cerberus Risk Solutions of South Africa whose license to deal in arms had expired before it entered into the contract. In actuality, it was the Standard Bank through which the fund was transferred which reported the “suspicious transaction”. And the NPA promptly applied for and obtained an order of the High Court for the seizure of the fund. Both companies-Cerberus Risk Solutions of South Africa and its Nigerian counterpart, Societe D’Equipments Internationale, are yet to challenge the interim order for the confiscation of the fund.
“Therefore, contrary to the mismanagement of information traceable to the office of the NSA, the Federal Government did not place any direct order for the importation of arms from South Africa. The fact that the NSA signed the End User certificate for the arms importation is not a license for the companies involved in the deal to breach the laws of South Africa.
In other words, the Israeli and two Nigerians who were arrested last month for smuggling the sum of $9.3 million and the Nigerian company involved in the transfer of the $5.7 million to South Africa are not public officers. As independent contractors they were awarded contracts for the supply of arms by the Federal Government and paid accordingly. It is indubitably clear that the suspects were negligent for failing to conduct due diligence”.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/war-terror-disturbing-tales-conspiracy-sabotage/#sthash.XCm9gR0D.dpuf
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